Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Dance party all night!

OK... not exactly all night, but... WAY past my bedtime! What, you may ask, would persuade Katie 'Grandma' Norwood to stay out until 11:3o on a school night... a MONDAY? None other than So You Think You Can Dance!!! This week, I went to see the SYTYCD tour with some of my very good friends and fellow dance aficionados from YES. We've been looking forward to this show for the last three months. We made sure to get tickets early since last year they sold out before we could buy them! The show did not disappoint. We certainly got our money's worth. They started dancing at 7:30 and didn't stop until 10:30!! Here are the highlights. We almost did some embarrassingly bad dance moves for this picture, but decided against it. I'm pretty sure that everyone there was a better dancer than us.Here's the top ten! It was so fun to see them in person. I was like a giddy ten year old girl, screaming for my favorites. Just in case you wanted to know, my favorites are Brandon, Kayla, Randi, Janette, Evan, and Phillip. Phillip was technically not in the top 10, but luckily, they let him go on tour. He is amazing!!!

The very first dance was possibly my favorite of last season - Brandon & Janette's disco. This dance is so fun to watch. If it doesn't make you want to dance, nothing will. They literally did every good dance from last season. It was amazing performance after amazing performance. Pictured below is the disco, the "cat burglar" dance, Randi and Evan's "butt dance", the amazing Bollywood dance, and of course, the very touching breast cancer dance by Melissa and Ade. I had a ridiculous smile on my face the entire time. It was just really, really fun to see all of the dances in person. The only downside was the MC work. It was painfully bad. The dancers came out two at a time and introduced each dance with horribly cheesy intros. It was seriously like a middle school talent show gone wrong. They also shamelessly promoted their merchandise by wearing different items of SYTYCD clothing each time they came on stage. They also shamelessly promoted their SYTYCD fitness videos. But I was able to look past those painful moments and enjoy the dancing.

Warning: I'm about to wax poetic about dancing.

I love shows like SYTYCD because I love to see people living their dreams. I think everyone has a desire to be the best at something, and everyone has this dream that they think might never come true. I get kind of overwhelmed and choked up when I get to see someone live their dream. I've mentioned this before on the blog, in relation to my other obsession - American Idol. I just feel so genuinely happy for them. I cry happy tears for them that they get to dance or sing up on that stage and go on tour and be on TV, when months ago, they were unknowns. That kind of stuff gives me chills. I love to hear their stories and just celebrate with them that their wildest dreams have come true.

I feel like a lot of my dreams have come true, and I pretty much live the best life anyone could ever ask for. However, if I could be anyone for a day or a week or a month, I would want to live the life of a performer. It looks like so freaking much fun to be up there dancing. I've always been obsessed with the "behind the scenes" life of a performer. I want to know what it feels like to be a ballet dancer or a Broadway singer. I think I would like it... for a little while. But... since that's not going to happen anytime soon (or ever), I'll stick to living vicariously through reality TV. The next season of SYTYCD is already underway!!! Bring it on!!!